Interactive television technologies generally enable adding Internet-based functionality, content and/or services as an overlay to the television signals provided by cable and satellite television providers. For example, one of the aims of interactive television technologies is to deliver Internet-accessible functionality, content and/or services to an individual consumer that are matched to a particular television program the consumer is currently watching. To that end, interactive television technologies often need to determine what a consumer is watching in order to deliver matched functionality, content and/or services.
According to previously developed systems and methods, a second device, such as a supplemental set-top box or a connected TV, is configured to work with the primary set-top box provided by a cable, satellite or other network television provider. In order to determine what a consumer is watching, the supplemental set-top box sends a query to the primary set-top box requesting information about the currently playing television program selected by the consumer (e.g. the title, names of actors or characters, electronic program guide information, etc.). In order to send such a query or otherwise communicate with the primary set-top box, the supplemental set-top box usually includes one or more provider-specific application program interfaces (APIs) that enable the supplemental set-top box to be paired with a wide variety of primary set-top boxes from various cable and satellite television providers. A similar situation also applies to other possible interactions between a supplemental set-top box and a primary set-top box, such as checking whether the primary set-top box is on or off or adjusting the default configuration of the primary set-top box. The development of each API requires the input and cooperation of a respective cable or satellite television provider that provides a primary set-top box to consumers. Developing the APIs with various providers tends to be inefficient, and hinders scaling such technologies across a wide variety of provider-specific platforms.
In addition to TV content, other types of media content and services can be provided through a primary set-top box. The content or other services can be provided via a direct connection to the set-top box, as built-in features of the set-top box, or via a network connection. For example, a digital video recorder (DVR) built into a set-top box can be used to record TV content or playback recorded TV content; the set-top box can be used to access video-on-demand (VOD), DVD, or Blu-ray content available from the cable or satellite provider, a DVD player, or a Blu-ray player, respectively, associated with the set-top box; or the set-top box can be used to connect a local security system to security monitoring services. As noted above, it is challenging to develop and maintain APIs for every possible primary set-top box device that can be connected to a secondary set-top box. The variety of additional services that can be connected to a primary set top box makes the development of APIs to provide access to, or control of, such additional services even more challenging. Therefore, there is a need for solutions that enable a supplemental set-top box to receive information from other services provided via a primary set top box and to interact with (e.g., control) those services without using custom APIs for a particular primary set-top box.